DHF Overview
The Dark Heresy Framework (DHF) is a package developed by Wolph42 for MapTool that will greatly enhance your online playing sessions. It supports a great number of features, including inventory, combat, initiative/round tracking, and character management. This overview won't make much sense if you aren't familiar with MapTool yet so make sure you do that first. Links to the MapTool tutorials can be found in the Getting Started guide. The Basics Tokens Once you've loaded a DHF Framework campaign file, you should change to the BASE map if you aren't already there. On the BASE map you should see (at least) the following tokens, these are the core of the DHF. Lib:DH: '''This token stores most of the macros that the DHF uses to make its magic happen. Do not touch this token except when you are Upgrading Your Campaign. '''Lib:Compendium: This token stores all of the databases that DHF uses. All of the gear, talents, skills, traits, psy powers, etc are stored here. You can edit these by using the edit buttons in the Selection '''window of this token. Normally however, you should also not touch this token or it's selection window buttons. '''IMPORTANT: Your DHF will not work if either of these tokens are missing! Also in order for players to be able to run DHF macros on their tokens, both of these must be visible to the player. To ensure that, right click the token and make sure Visible to players is checked. Grenade Tokens: 'These tokens are used when a character throws a grenade. They should teleport to the character when they throw a grenade so that you cna move the grenade to the desired location, however you can also copy/paste these tokens where you need them. '''Sample Character(s): ' Usually there is a sample character named Nihulus Faine for you to examine and play with. Buttons DHF will put a lot of buttons in the various macro windows (Campaign and Selection). You should experiment with these buttons, but don't save the changes unless you are positive you want to! 'Campaign: '''In here you will find the Initiative Tool, GM Tools, Grenades buttons, Rules buttons that print out the rules to chat, and the Utils buttons which include the Token Props Parser and the Settings button. '''Selection: '''If you have a character token selected (always the case for tokens you create by dragging to the screen), you will see a large variety of buttons. Here you will be able to view and modify your characters stats, talents, skills, traits, powers, weapons, armor, and gear. Once you have equipped a weapon in the Manage Weapons screen, you can also use the "Create Attack Macro" button to create a button specifically for that weapon, such as a "Las Pistol" button that will open the attack window for that weapon. The advances stuff Next to the main two token you will also find more library token below. Currently (v3.4.1) these are: *'Token Move: this is the latest addition, based on the latest (MT build 75) function (onTokenMove) added to MT. This lib token supports the warded area (barbed fence) where a token can't move into, the teleport pads and the map teleport pads. More info about that you can find on the token itself, the splashscreen and hopefully in the future here as well. *'Light': this is the engine of the 'light' button on the campaign panel *'Group Select': (Created by CIF) This is actually usefull when playing a game. Here are ctrl+F2 upto F6 pre defined, to SET a selected group of tokens (think Red Alert here). You can retrieve the selection by pressing F2 up to F6. Alternatively there is also a frame with an overview of set groups which you can set/retrieve/delete or in short: manage from there. The quick buttons and the frame are NOT connected. *'Macro IO: '(created by Alias, Raodan, Biodude) two related buttons of this lib token can be found on the campaign panel: import and export macros from token. These are used for programming the DHF *'Token Manager': (Created by Raodan) especially with older tokens there can be lingering/old/hidden properties on it that you can't see if you double click on them. On the token Manager there is a button 'open token manager' if you click on this and select a token, you see an overview of ALL properties and macros on that token and can edit them. Using DHF in Your Campaigns To use the DHF in your campaigns you should follow these steps. 1. Open the DarkHeresy_framework file you downloaded from the RPTools forums 2. Choose File - > Save as.. and save the campaign under whatever name you'd like. I recommend placing it in a "my campaigns" folder inside your MapTool Resources folder (if you created one). I also recommend that you include the version of DHF in the filename. So you could call it mycampaign_dhf14 (for DHF version 1.4), for example. 3. Now build your campaign as your normally would in maptools, by creating maps. 4. To create a pc character or an npc character, drag an item from your resource library onto the maptools main screen (make sure token layer is selected). All tokens created in this way automatically become Dark Heresy characters. 5. Edit those PC characters either by going through the various buttons, Edit Characteristics, Edit Skills, Edit Talents, etc (in the selection window), or by using the Token Props Parser (in the campaign window). 6. Save your campaign. (you should do this frequently, just in case...)